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Dear CSA Friends,
In 2025, Ignatius Farm will take a pause from the longstanding Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) program to allow for a fallow season. This decision wasn’t made lightly. Although Ignatius Farm has consistently produced exceptional, high-quality organic vegetables, the economic challenges of growing food as a non-profit have become significant. These challenges have included:
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Fair Wages for Workers: The Ignatius Jesuit Centre (IJC) is committed to providing ethical wages for its farm workers. Organic horticulture is labor-intensive, yet the prevailing food system expects prices that depend on low-cost labor and externalized environmental costs. Unlike private farms, Ignatius Farm cannot and should not make sacrifices that would undermine our commitment to fair labor and ecological integrity.
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Staffing Evolution: In the past, interns worked on the farm and were provided with housing, food, a stipend and the training program. Incrementally, the farm has integrated paid seasonal staff for labour efficiency. In recent years, Ignatius Farm switched to hiring and paying all interns and seasonal staff full wages, significantly increasing labour costs.
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Climate Change: Increasing volatile growing conditions due to the impacts of climate change have required extra cropping and additional protected growing spaces to guarantee weekly CSA crop diversity.
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Financial Pressure: Experimenting with new markets and sales methods has not generated sufficient income to offset growing deficits. Meanwhile, demand for Ignatius Farm’s CSA has plateaued, making it difficult to raise prices significantly to match costs.
Over the last 25 years, the CSA program has evolved and adapted, yet continuing with the same model has become unsustainable. In order to ensure the farm’s long-term viability, we have made the difficult decision to pause the CSA for 2025 and use this time to explore alternative agricultural approaches. Working gently and carefully with the land remains central to our mission of ecological engagement.
We invite you to join us for a community gathering to discuss this decision, provide more information, express our gratitude for the CSA’s impact, and reflect on the journey ahead. This gathering will be held on November 24 at 4:30 p.m. at Loyola House. This will be a time for discussion, sharing, and also thanksgiving for all the CSA has done. Please bring all your concerns and questions. Please register here.
Please note that Ignatius Farm Community Gardens and Small Plot Agriculture tenancies will continue while we identify what food-growing might be possible with a different scale, sales structures, and new collaborations.
If you have any questions on concerns, feel free to reach out to Andrea Scapinello at ascapinello@ignatiusguelph.ca or Heather Lekx at hlekx@ignatiusguelph.ca.
Thank you for your support and understanding during this time of transition. The wellbeing of Ignatius Farm, and the Ignatius Jesuit Centre is deeply rooted in the strength of its community.
With gratitude,
Greg Kennedy, Executive Director
Andrea Scapinello, Director of Operations
Heather Lekx, Farm Manager
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